TMG To Partner INEC In Ensuring Free, Fair, Credible Elections

Posted by Ignatius Okpara Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Wednesday, December 14th, 2022

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Ahead of the 2023 general polls in Nigeria, foremost election monitoring and Civic Advocacy group, under the platform of Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), has assured the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC of its readiness to partner it in ensuring a free, fair, credible exercise.

Chairman of the Organization, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), made the pledge Wednesday in Enugu during a four day Training Workshop for TMG State Coordinators in Southern states of the country, saying the programme is aimed at fostering Nigeria’s democracy.

He said the organization is always disposed towards promoting free fair and credible elections which brings about good governance in any nation.

According to him, “It was our desire to pull the state coordinators from the length and breadth of the country to one event, but due to logistic reasons, we have been forced to break the event into two.

Our Correspondent reports that the Workshop which ends on Thursday, has as its theme: “Supporting Citizens Engagement Towards the 2023 General Elections” and is being attended by TMG State Coordinators from South -East, South- West, South- South geo political zones of Nigeria, as well as the host, Enugu Coordinator, Mr. Frank Akuma.

Rafsanjani, who spoke through Vice Chairperson of TMG, Mrs. Miriam Menkiti, added: “more importantly, I am excited to bring to your notice of the project which the (TMG) Secretariat secured in partnership with the Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) project.

“Though, it is a one-year project, but it helps to keep TMG in the front foot of civic engagement and puts us on the map again to attract bigger funding in the future. Hence, the implementation of this project becomes even more crucial as the Secretariat had tried to ensure the involvement of the state coordinators in the concept of the project.

” It is within this idea that the training workshop is organized to refresh knowledge and equip the Coordinators with the responsibilities ahead of the 2023 election.

The Chairman further stressed that “it is imperative for TMG as the foremost election monitoring and civic advocacy group to reclaim its glory again as this workshop comes at a very critical time when our country is preparing for the 2023 election which is poised to be governed by key electoral reforms that have been introduced into the system.

He explained that the Supporting Citizens Engagements towards the 2023 Election project “provides us the opportunity of ensuring the electoral reforms that we have all fought for collective and individual capacities reflect the outcome of the election.

“This is also the spirit in the conceptualization of this project as key actions within the implementation plan of the project include state-level training and mobilization of observers across local governments in each of the 36 states of Nigeria and Abuja, as well as sensitization and awareness creation engagements to mobilize citizens’ active participation in the election.

“Our aim is to achieve the desired outcomes in improving quality of elections in Nigeria by ensuring that citizens are adequately and effectively mobilized and sensitized in order to actively participate in elections in Nigeria.

” I will like to extend our profound gratitude to the Palladium Group and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the partnership under this project, as I urge us all to put all hands-on deck to ensure efficient implementation of the project as the state level inputs are as equally important.

“I also thank specially, the Residential Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Enugu for providing TMG the resource support for this workshop.

“We believe strongly in continued collaboration with the Commission as critical to free, fair, credible and participatory elections in Nigeria

In a paper entitled: “Technology and 2023 Election” the Enugu state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr. Chukwuemeka Joseph Chukwu, said the 2023 general elections will witness a lot intricacies right from the pre- election phase to the Election day and post – election period.

He posited thus: “but one concept that may just be the major game changer in the elections is the role Technology will play in determining the credibility and transparency if the process.

According to the Enugu REC, who was represented by the Head of Department HOD, Voter Education and publicity, Mr. Achumie Chuka Rex, the marked success in the development of technological innovations like the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and Results viewing portal is a huge sign that the election management process is steadily improving.

“Also, the recent revelation of our Chairman, professor Mahmood Yakubu, that there were several attempts to hack the system during the Ekiti and Osun Governorship elections is another sign that the Commission seems to be armed to manage its Electoral technology.

“At the moment, Nigerians are gradually bidding farewell to the dark days when the voter’s register was infested with foreign names, and those when election results were announced while voting is still ongoing.

He noted that the 2022 innovations introduced by the electoral management body, including the IREV, and BVAS, have enabled the country move light years away from its Electoral debacles.

It’s also worthy of mention that, recent revelation by the INEC Chairman, Mamood, show that the Commission has conducted a total of 105 elections, using the IREV, while it has uploaded 32,985 (99.13 percent) out of a possible 33, 275 results, having recorded 100 percent upload rate in the just concluded Ekiti and Osun Governorship elections

He however, assured the nation’s Electorate that with the new technologies, issue of electoral fraud or manipulation is now a thing of the past.

The Enugu INEC public Relations officer PRO, Mr. Victor Okafor, in his own paper, tagged: “Unbundling the Voting and Result transmission Process”, educated the workshop participants on the various steps involved in the voting processes.